Holy See's Address on Information Technologies

This via Zenit.org. It is an interesting and compelling essay on the relationship between truth, ethics and technology. What I don’t agree with is the treatment of technology and communication as a human right. This leads to a whole lot of social experimentation and socialist policy that have been proven to not work.

NEW YORK, OCT. 18, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of an address delivered by
Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United
Nations, last Thursday before the U.N. General Assembly commission on “Questions
Relating to information.”

* * *

Mr. Chairman,

The Holy See recognizes the right to information and its importance in the life of
all democratic societies and institutions. The exercise of the freedom of
communication should not depend upon wealth, education or political power. The right to communicate is the right of all. Freedom of expression and the right to
information increase and develop in societies when the fundamental ethics of
communication are not compromised, such as the pre-eminence of truth and the good of the individual, the respect for human dignity, and the promotion of the common good.

Furthermore, new technologies have an important role to play in the advancement of the poor. As with health and education, access to the wealth represented by
communications would certainly benefit the poor, as recipients of information to be
sure, but also as actors, able to promote their own point of view before the world’s
decision makers.

Given the ever increasing ease of access to information of every possible kind, the Holy See also stresses the need to protect the most vulnerable, such as children and young people, especially in the light of the increase of content featuring violence, intolerance and pornography.

Perhaps the most essential question raised by technological progress is whether, as a result of it, people will grow in dignity, responsibility and openness to others.

In this context, the Holy See has set up a unique continent-wide initiative called
the Digital Network of the Church in Latin America (“Red Informatica de Iglesia en
America Latina” — RIIAL) which promotes the adoption of digital technologies and
programs in media education, especially in poor areas. The success of this project
has drawn the attention of the Observatory for Cultural and Audiovisual
Communication in the Mediterranean and in the World (OCCAM) and other international organizations. The Holy See also supports the continued promotion of the traditional role of libraries and radios in formation.

It is to be hoped that the Second Phase of the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be held in Tunis shortly, will lead to further concrete efforts to build a more inclusive digital society which will reduce the widespread
“info-poverty.” It would be well if a new dynamic were created which goes beyond the political and commercial logic usually at play in these fields.

My delegation believes that the Information Society should be one endowed with the ability, capacity and skills to generate and capture new knowledge and to access, absorb and use effectively information, data and knowledge with the support of information and communication technology. Already in society there are many “agents of meaning” or “knowledge workers,” such as the family, schools, the state, opinion makers and leaders, not to mention religious institutions.

Knowledge is essential in establishing presence in the international marketplace,
and is key to participating in the global economy of which the Internet is an increasingly important vehicle. Moreover, knowledge should be recognized in its role in the development of information and communication technology. At the same time, there is a fundamental need to develop an ability to discern information received, given the enormous sea of information available. This process can flourish only where there is a recognized hierarchy of values.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman

AMD brings bare-bones PC to consumers

This sounds like a more solid, and economically feasible idea. It sticks to major communication technology standards, and focuses in on specific needed uses. I think this kind of product will do a lot more to gap the technology divide in third world countries.

Radio Shack plans to start selling a low-cost alternative to the personal computer starting Sunday.

The $299 machine, dubbed the Personal Internet Communicator, was designed by Advanced Micro Devices to access the Internet and perform basic computing tasks.

Sunnyvale-based AMD originally conceived the device last year for low-income consumers in developing countries as part of an effort it calls “50×15.” AMD Chief Executive Hector Ruiz wants more than half of the world’s population using computers by 2015.

It turns out that companies such as Radio Shack see demand for low-cost devices even in the United States.

In contrast to more complex personal computers, the Personal Internet Communicator is a bare-bones machine that is supposed to be simple, reliable and durable, said Bill Edwards, AMD’s chief innovation officer.

It uses the stripped-down Windows CE operating system from Microsoft and can be used to read and create word processing, spreadsheet and presentation files as well as access the Internet or send e-mail.

“It’s not a general-purpose PC,” Edwards said. “It focuses on communications, and for a lot of folks, that’s all they need.”

So far, telephone and cable TV companies have begun providing subscribers with the machine in places such as Mexico, Brazil, the Caribbean and India. Soon, companies in China, Russia, Turkey and elsewhere will start selling the Personal Internet Communicator.

$100 laptop set to bridge digital gap?

This is an interesting idea, and good effort, but I am not sure if it is realistic of the demands placed by computer users worldwide. Just because the user is in a third world country, does not mean the demands are first-world demands. Also, what is the use of students learning Linux, when companies want employees that know and have experience on Windows and Office?

At the end, its a feel good thing, but with Microsoft and Office being a huge standard, I don’t know that creating bare-bones computers is all that helpful. A better option would be to encourage corporations to donate second hand computers to schools.

The visionary is Nicholas Negroponte, director of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his idea consists of a new kind of laptop computer that will cost just $100 (about R636) to buy.

It will also be a little different in design from the sleek machines some of us in the West have learned to love or covet.

It will be foldable in different ways, encased in bump-proof rubber and will include a hand-crank to give it power in those corners of the globe where electricity supply is patchy.

The first prototype of the machine should be ready by November and Negroponte – who was one of the first prophets of the internet before most of us understood the word – hopes to put them into production next year.

He expects to churn out about 15 million of them in a year, shipping most of them at first to children in Brazil, Egypt, Thailand and South Africa.

Describing the unusual design of his sub-laptop on Friday, Negroponte insisted that it would “have to be absolutely indestructible”.

The mission is to create a tool that children almost anywhere can use and can easily carry between their classrooms and their homes. For that reason, for instance, the AC adaptor cable will double as a shoulder strap.

Technology is a big need in third world countries. Instead of trying to create low-cost computing that isn’t competitive, we should be fighting third world corruption, opening up free trade, and helping these countries develop their own technology production capabilities. That’s just my thoughts–who knows, maybe the idea actually works and does help. Perhaps I am missing something here.

Microsoft to support PDF in Office 12

ZDNet has a story on Microsoft’s Office 12, and new functionality that will enable people to publish documents in the Adobe PDF format.

Office 12, which is expected to be completed by the second half of 2006, will let end users take an Office document and convert it to PDF format, Brian Jones, a program manager for Microsoft Office, said in a blog posting. People will not be able to actually read PDF files from within Office applications; a PDF viewer will still be required, he noted.

The PDF support will be built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, OneNote, Visio and InfoPath, Jones said.

“We’ve really heard the feedback that sharing documents across multiple platforms and long-term archiving are really important,” Jones said in his blog. “People now have a couple options here, with the existing support for HTML and RTF, and now the new support for open XML formats and PDF.”

It is interesting to see more and more integration between the various document formats and technology. This should be good for consumers, who won’t be “forced” to buy one product over another, as a result of incompatibility issues.

500 Million People Worldwide are Expected to own Camera Phone

How is this going to change our public world? I wonder if this could mean huge steps forward in the fight against corruption in third world countries? What about here in the US? What about right to privacy from strangers?

By the end of this year, 500 million people worldwide are expected to own a telephone with some sort of image-capturing device. That number could swell to 3 billion by 2010, says cellphone manufacturer Nokia.

LATIMES.COM 9.6.05

Consumption of Web Services Will Greatly Increase Through 2009

Interesting look ahead. This is a key trend in regards to how and where corporations are spending their Information Systems money. The Internet is the great “integrator”, making cohesiveness in business processes possible.

“Web services are expected to become even more pervasively used throughout the entire computing stack,” said Sandra Rogers, program director for SOA, Web Services, and Integration research at IDC. “Web services have been and will continue to be primarily adopted by technology vendors that then proliferate the use and consumption of Web services via integrated solutions more so than enterprises addressing all the development and processing complexity directly.”

Several trends influencing the level of spending for Web services software include:

• Continued vendor and product consolidation

• Price pressures and shifting license models

• Evolving maturity and skill sets in developing Web services and Services oriented architecture (SOA) solutions

• Major product version releases by key vendors influencing the landscape

• Complexity of and rate of adoption for various Web services standards

• Organizations balancing existing base of technologies until volume and levels of complexity force review and investment

Companies Turn to Knowledge Management to Solve Information Overload

A recent survey of 122 European business executives has found that, of all strategic technologies, knowledge management solutions rank first among executives in terms of importance in large companies. The survey, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, indicated that this may be because the majority of executives feel unable to use large amounts of the corporate information that is available to them.

Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said that their IT departments’ failure to prioritize bulk information was the main barrier to effective decision-making. Ignorance of what knowledge exists, or of where to find it, is another major barrier, according to 41 percent of respondents.

In some cases, a simple solution—such as keeping a regularly updated record of who knows what—can be more effective than throwing IT at the problem, according to the report.

Apple Launches New ITunes Phone, Changing the Face of Media

This is trend-setting and is part of what will change how people engage with Media. The key idea behind this sort of technology is to combine tools, and allow individuals to listen to what they want when they want to. Media is going one-on-one, instead of the old-world fashion of “broad”casting.

By GREG SANDOVAL
AP Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs introduced a music-playing phone Wednesday that is capable of storing about 100 songs, as well as a pencil-thin version of the iPod, the company’s ubiquitous digital music device.

The iPhone, made by Motorola Inc. and loaded with iTunes software, can store podcasts as well as music. Users can transfer songs to the device from their PC or Macintosh computers and make calls through Cingular Wireless.

“It’s an iPod shuffle right on your phone,” said Jobs, Apple’s chief executive officer, who noted that both the iPhone and iPod shuffle both randomly sort music, hold about the same number of songs and have display screens.

Jobs also introduced the pencil-thin iPod Nano, which will replace the iPod Mini. It is one-third the size of the Mini and holds 1,000 songs.

“It’s impossibly small,” Jobs said at the Moscone Convention Center. “It’s thinner than a No. 2 pencil.”

The Nano can store music, games, photos and a calendar. It also has a “screen lock” feature that allows no one except the user to access content.

A 4-gigabyte Nano will retail for $249, and a 2-gigabyte model will sell for $199. Both versions will be available in stores this weekend, Jobs said.

Music-playing cell phones could emerge as a competitor to the iPod, some analysts predict. By branching into phones, Apple would hope to secure its place as the kingpin of digital music regardless of what device is used to listen.

Shares of Apple rose 21 cents to $49.01 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Tags: Motorola, iTunes, Apple, iPod, Mobile Phones, iPhone, Rumors, Cingular.

Wi-FiTV Launches

Wi-FiTV (www.wi-fitv.com), a broadband Web site that features more than 200 TV channels from around the world, launched last week.

The site bills itself as providing one-click access to news, sports, music and general-entertainment channels, fitting its definition of IPTV.

The channels can be accessed using any broadband connection — cable, digital subscriber line or T-1 — although session quality can vary depending on the channel and the broadband-connection speed.

It looks interesting, but it is yet to be seen as far as how much acceptance it’s going to get.